A fan has built an electromagnetic Captain America shield that actually works

Magnets are the real heroes

Captain America is one of Marvel’s greatest superheroes and a big part of his power is his Vibranium shield. It’s the only thing stronger than his need for justice. Not only is Captain America’s shield strong (and, we have a sneaking suspicion, super fun to ride down a snowy hill) it was also given some electromagnetic improvements by Tony Stark that enabled the hero to control it in-flight and make for an easier return.

We’ve seen plenty of impressive shields that look like Cap’s but we’ve never seen one that allows fans to replicate its sheer power. Until now. Using electromagnetic attachments, YouTube user The Hacksmith has managed to build a functional Captain America shield and it’s incredibly impressive.

The shield looks the part thanks to Machina Props, but to make it act the part The Hacksmith fitted a vambrace with two powerful electromagnets powered with 66 volts (as opposed to the standard 12 volts) to create a lifting force of up to 3000 pounds. He shows off the power of the magnets in the above video, using them to lift heavy metal objects around his workshop and you can see the magnets used with the shield below:

Although the electromagnets mean that the shield has incredible force and it can be held securely on the arm, and even picked up without touching it, it doesn’t have the same return power when it’s thrown as the comic book version. That would, unfortunately, take the reflexes and spatial reasoning of Captain America himself. It takes more than a shield to be a superhero, after all.